ES 


SERMON, 
PREACHED IN 
ST. JAMES? CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA, 
BEFORE as THE BENEFIT OF THE 


DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN — 


 SAissionary Society, 


OF THE 


_ PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 


IN THE 


Giniteys States of Aivertca; 


- AT THE TRIENNIAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY, ON MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 1829. 


BY BENJAMIN T. ONDERDONK, D. D., 


AN ASSISTANT MINISTER OF TRINITY CHURCH, NEW-YORK, AND PROFESSOR OF 


THE NATURE, MINISTRY, AND POLITY OF THE CHURCH, IN THE GENERAL 
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL ' ; 
CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. 


PUBLISHED AT ‘THE REQUEST OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS. 
i | 
; NEW KLORK 8 * 


PRINTED AT THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL PRESS, 


No. 8 Rector-Street. ul 


1829. 


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A SERMON, é&c. 
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REVELATION i. 20. 


The seven Candlesticks which thou sawest are the 
seven Churches. | 


Tuts is a part of the address of our Lord to St. John, 
when he appeared to him during his exile on Patmos. 
Preparatory to unfolding to him the stupendous visions, the 
full completion of which is still to add strong corroboration 
to the accumulating evidence in favour of Christianity, 
Jesus commissions him to address epistles of commendation, | 
censure, encouragement, and warning, to seven of the 
principal churches of the time, and through them to all 
churches which at all times shall need similar addresses. 
These churches are to be addressed through the medium 
of their respective angels or bishops. These supreme and 
responsible officers in their respective churches, are sym- 
bolically represented, in St. John’s vision, as stars, and their 
churches as candlesticks. This last figure, without any 
particular reference to the splendid vision with which it is — 
connected, it is now designed to consider as suggesting some 
interesting reflections adapted to the occasion of our pre- 
sent meeting. 


| 4 Abs td 

The word here translated candlestick means any utensil 
in which a light is placed.» It gives us an idea of the cha- 
racter and design of the Christian Church, at once beauti- 
ful, interesting, and instructive. 

All the blessings of the Saviour’s religion are frequently 
brought to our notice in Seripture under the general term 
light. That religion discloses to us the character, attri- 
butes, and will ‘of God, and the path of duty. It shows 
us where and how pardon and comfort are to be found. 
It dispels the gloom of. affliction, and lights up peace, hope, 
and joy, in the faithful breast. Through all the mazes of 
this world’s cares, trials, and perplexities, it brightens the 
Christian’s path, and shows arest beyond them. Amid the 
dark gatherings, and the dread violence, of the storms of 
adversity, it points to the bright bow of promise, and fixes 
the eye of faith upon that land of pure delight, where eternal 
sunshine rests upon the ransomed of the Lord. When 
nature is yielding to the summons to enter the gloomy 
valley of the shadow of death, it bids the true disciple of 
the Lamb even there to fear no evil, for even there the 
light of the Lord points to the bright regions of eternal day 
that-lie beyond. 


This light of Divine Truth, so satisfactory, so cheering, 
and so supporting, the Church is God’s honoured instru- 
ment of holding forth for the guidance and comfort of men 
in this probationary state. This proposition is true of the 
great Catholic body of the Redeemer which, in the lan- 
guage of our nineteenth article of religion, is composed of 
all who, professing the true faith, enjoy the preaching: of 
the pure Word of God, and the due administration of the 
sacraments, according to Christ’s ordinance. | It is true, 


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also, according to the obvious sense of the text and context, 
of each constituent part of that universal | body. Every such 
part, so duly constituted as to preserve the essential cha- 
racteristics of the Catholic Church of Christ, is a candle- 
stick, or a bearer of that light whence flow all the blessings 
of the religion of the Redeemer. | 


This truth may be considered as illustrated by the Word 
of God, of which the Church is the guardian and dispenser ; 
by the sacraments which she is authorized to administer ; 
and by the ordinances and services in which she holds out 
appointed means of grace and salvation. 


The Church is the appointed mean of preserving and 


disseminating the light of the Divine Word. 


Coeval with divine revelation was the appointment of an 
order of men, as the ministers of God’s Church, for attaining 
and disseminating an accurate knowledge of its edifying and 
saving truths. For about two thousand and five hundred 
years (from the creation to the ministry of Moses) the only 
medium of the communication of God’s revealed will to 
man was the oral instructions of the ministers of his Church. 
Honoured themselves with direct revelations from on high, 
or instructed in those which had been vouchsafed to others, 
patriarchs, priests, and _ prophets declared the will of God, 
and were his instruments of extending and preserving it. 
And when that will became the subject of written record, 
(as was first the case in the time of Moses,) so far was this 
from superseding the necessity of living teachers to disse- 
minate a knowledge of it, that the organization. of the x mi- 
nistry of the Church became more definite; and at every 
period it was the obvious will of God, as expressed by his 


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Ut. Mae 


‘prophet when the volume of inspired truth had become 

much enlarged, and its circulation greatly extended, that 

“the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should 

seek the law at his mouth.” And when the Church’s last 

dispensation was brought in by the Messiah, and written 

revelation completed, not less obvious is the divine will that 

through the instrumentality of a ministry the truths of that 

revelation should.be preserved and disseminated ; the mi- 

nistry was the honoured instrument of extending the religion 

of the Messiah ; the Church was declared to be the pil- 

lar and ground of the truth; the edifying of the body of 
Christ, and the spreading of the knowledge of the Son of 
God, were represented as to be effected by the legitimate 

exercise of those functions which were committed to the 

Apostles and their associate ambassadors of Christ, to be 

handed down to the end of time ; and separation from the” 
Church or body of Christ was denounced as the source of 
every departure from the truth. 


Thus, by divine appointment, inseparably connected with 
the true religion of the Redeemer, the Church may well be 
called, in the expressive figure of the text, a candlestick— 
God’s chosen instrument for preserving and dispensing the 
light of his Divme Word, In wise and holy accordance 
with this characteristic, is the primitive and edifying pro- 
vision for making the public reading of the Scriptures an 
important part of the stated services of the Church. Here- 
in she appears in her legitimate character, holding forth the 
pure word of God for the edification and guidance of her 
members ; by the exercise of an authority in her ministers 
from the same divine source whence ‘flowed the commis- 
sions of prophets, evangelists, apostles, and even the Mes- 
siah, again announcing to the world their heavenly mes- 


' [ Md a 
sages; and thus maintaining and emitting a perpetual light 
for man’s guidance, consolation, and salvation. 


In aid of the same great end is the important and exten- 
sive commission, held by the ministry of the Church, of 
explaining and enforcing the doctrines and precepts of 
Holy Writ. Iam well aware, my brethren, of the mag- 
nitude of the obligation, and the awful extent of the res- 
ponsibility, hence devolving on those who are’ honoured 
with this commission. It is saying indeed much of it, 
and what should come most seriously home to the con- 
sciences of all concerned ; but it is saying no more than is 
justified by God’s own appomtment ; to place this among 
the most important means of the Church’s duly maintain- 
ing, and profitably exercising, its divine prerogative of 
holding, for man’s guidance through this probationary state, 
that light of the Lord which only can direct him in the ways 
of his laws and the works of his commandments, give him 
true gospel comfort and support, and carry him onward to 
the bright regions of eternal day. The ministry of the word, 
by imparting that light which is derived by diligent and 
careful study of the inspired Volume, accompanied with 
devout meditation on its contents, and faithful prayer for 
the direction and blessing therein of God’s unerring grace, 
may well be considered as symbolized by that ministry in 
the Church of old, which was devoted to preserving pure 
and bright the light which, in the holy candlestick, was — 
kept continually burning in the sanctuary of the Most High. 


Andvery necessary for the encouragement of those whose 
is this sacred ministry in the Christian church, and a most 
powerful motive to their diligence and fidelity, is the con- 
sideration suggested by the fact exhibited in the same vision 


Lite: | ’ 

whence the text is taken, of the Son of Man, the gracious 
Saviour, walking in the midst of the candlesticks, vouchsafing 
that presence with his churches, which, while it manifests 
an inspection and supervision that should call loudly on all 
his ministers for the utmost of their zeal and devotion, is 
also to them a blessed earnest of that directing and sup- 
porting grace and care, without which all their efforts will 
be in vain, and the light which they are appointed to sustain 
will grow dim, and sink, and die. | 


By the administration of the sacraments, also, the Church 
fulfils her important function of sustaining and disseminating 
the light of the Gospel. 


The foundation of the whole Gospel scheme is unme- 
rited divine mercy, a covenant all grace on the part of God, 
and all benefit on the part of man. For entratice into this 
covenant, God, in his wisdom and goodness, has been 
pleased to appoint an interesting and significant sacrament. 
When, by the use of this, his authorized representative re- 
ceives a human being into that blessed covenant, pledges 
to him the divine compassion and grace, and puts him into 
the appointed way of salvation, a most impressive view is ex- 
hibited of our entire need of God’s mere mercy, and entire 
dependence upon his mere will, in order to enjoy the inesti- 
mable blessings of sanctification and salvation. That’ is 
hallowed by him, which, but for his appointment, would be 
worthless for any spiritual effect. ‘That is made a mean 
and pledge of his grace and mercy which, in itself, were 
but an idle ceremony. Man’s entire dependence is illus- 
trated by the fact, that he must seek God’s favour in a way 
which, having no natural connexion with religious duty, is 
made such only because God pleases to have itso. Thus 


[ #907] 


is set forth the important fact that we must, in order to be 
in the appointed way of grace and salvation, pass, by a 
visible transition, from the uncovenanted state of nature, to 
that state of covenant with God which he is pleased to make 
consequent on the reception of holy baptism. And this 
strongly exhibits the melancholy truth, that of ourselves we 
are alienated from God, unable to save ourselves, and with- 
out hope in the world; and. the accompanying blessed. 
truth, that God has provided a way for our obtaining, 
through Christ, that holiness here, and everlasting happiness 
hereafter, which, but for his sparing, sanctifying, ard saving 
mercy, could never be-ours. 


Thus is light thrown, by this blessed sacrament, on the 
method of God’s grace and mercy in the Redeemer. And 
when, as a mean and pledge, it is duly improved by its. fa- 
voured recipient, it opens to him all the fulness ‘of that gos- 
pel light which will safely direct him in the path of duty, 
cheer and console him in every trial, animate and sustain 
him in the work of his salvation, illumine the passage of his 
soul through’ the dark vale of death, and conduct him finally 
to the brightness of the Church’s triumphant glory in the 
heavens. 


But in his progress thither, his faith must be kept clear, 
lively, and active, and his spirit be nourished, and his 
strength recruited, by the grace of God in Christ. And 
here, too, visible means and pledges of this grace are pro- 
vided in the blessed sacrament of the eucharist.. There is 
set forth the lively memorial of the great sacrifice for sin, 
presenting to the view of the faithful the symbols of the 
body and blood therein offered. In this appointed comme- 
moration has been, and to the end of time will be, handed 

bar . . 


down incontestible evidence of the death of Christ as an 
atonement for sin. Never could an observance, claiming 
to have been a publicly received memorial of a transaction 
contemporary with its origin, have been imposed upon the 
world. It is absurd to suppose, that at any period an at- 
tempt would be made to make the world believe that an 
ordinance then established had been observed for genera- 
tions in memory of an event of which it was constituted, 
at the time, the appointed memorial.  Emphatically, then, 
may it be said of the eucharist, in the language of St. Paul, . 
that it shows the Lord’s death till he come, till his final 
advent to close this scene of mortality and probation. 
While the world stands this ordinance will be incontestible 
evidence that Christ did die asa propitiation for sin. When- 
ever and wherever it is celebrated according to his ap- 
pointment, there is set up a pure and holy light, drawing 
the view of faith to the Lamb of God, which taketh away 
the sin of the world. 


And that view thither directed, in the true spirit of Chris- 
tian penitence, humility, devotion, and undivided trust, 
cheering beams of hope, consolation, peace, and joy, will 
shine upon the soul. The body given, and the blood shed, 
received by faith with thanksgiving, will seal to the reci- 
pient a full and frée pardon through the great atonement, 
and convey to him the strengthening, refreshing, sanctify- 
ing, and saving influences of the grace of God. These in- 
fluences, duly improved, will draw around him the blessed 
beams of that heavenly light which will direct him in the 
right path, and enable him to go on his way, strong in ‘the 
faith, and rejoicing in the hope, of the Gospel; cheered 
and animated through all trials and difficulties, until even 


the dark gates of death will open on his happy spirit a flood 
of everlasting day. 

iy 
_ And if particularly in the sacraments which it is divinely 
appointed to dispense, the Church is God’s honoured instru- 
ment for holding out to men the light of heavenly truth and 
consolation; so also does this appear in the services and 
ordinances generally of that religion of which it is the con- 
stituted guardian and medium of conveyance. ) 


Wherever the true Christian worship of God is duly es- 
tablished, and the ministrations of his authorized ambassa- 
dors faithfully performed, there is set up, and preserved, a 
pure and holy light flowing from God to his people in. the 
influences of his grace, and reflected from‘ them towards 
him in the spirit and exercise of evangelical devotion. He 
‘is held forth to.them as the legitimate object of their ado- 
ration. His nature, attributes, and acts are presented to 
their view in their most endearing and engaging forms, and 
the contemplation and reverence of them brought home to 
their hearts, as rules of faith, and motives to obedience,, in 
the most powerful and interesting manner. Their view is 
perpetually directed to the great object of Christian faith, 
Jesus Christ, and him crucified, as the only hope and refuge | 
of perishing sinners. They are brought to the foot of his 
cross, there, in all humility, penitence, and faith, to look up 
for relief from the burden of their sins, and escape from 
the terrors of God’s violated laws. They have the divine 
Sanctifier, the Holy Spirit, presented to. their view as the 
only author of whatever of holiness, purity, and sincerity, 
can characterize their spiritual state. And at the end of 
all their hopes of being enabled, by God’s grace, to worship 
and serve him, they see disclosed the Intercessor at his right 


hand, through whom alone acceptance and blessing can be 
enjoyed. 
‘In all these remarks, my brethren, on the various ways 
in which the Church may justly be termed a candlestick, 
or bearer of the light of the Gospel, I have had anxiously 
in view, for the purpose, not of invidious comparison, but 
of serious practical improvement, the methods adopted by 
our own portion of Christ’s church for profitably sustain- 
ing that character. . | 


With a ministry deriving its authority in direct succession 
from Christ and his apostles, with standards of faith par- 
taking of all the purity and fulness of revelation, and with 
ministerial services rich in the direct use of the word of 
God, and fraught with .all that.in soundness of faith, fer- 
vency of devotion, purity of religious motive, elevation of 
religious feeling, and the full recognizing of religious obh- . 
gation, can come up to the Gospel model, it holds the true 
light for the guidance and comfort of its members, and 
would draw to it the admiration, and commend it to the re- 
ception, of the world. The blessed sacraments it invests 
with whatever in form and manner can secure the due ap- 
preciation of their character and efficacy. In the ordinance 
of confirmation, designed to intervene between admission 
into the Church and the highest act of its communion, it 
makes a most interesting and affecting exhibition of the ob- 
ligations and responsibilities of the Christian covenant. 
The daily services of the temple it invests with every view 
of God and man, of sin and pardon, of natural depravity 
and sanctification by grace, of condemnation and sal- 
vation, of man’s inability and the all-sufficiency of redeem- 
ing mercy, which can secure a pure, holy, and evangelical 


L a] 


homage, and one offered with an understanding enlightened 
in all the precious truths and salutary requisitions of the 
Gospel. In sickness and affliction it visits its members with 
the most serious calls and warnings, and with the brightest 
hopes and consolations, of God’s inspired word. And after 
death, it draws down light from the heavenly sanctuary for 
the improvement and comfort of survivors. | 


Thus efficient, brethren, is our portion of Christ’s church 
in fulfilling the character of God’s instrument for bearing, 
for the benefit of mankind, the light of the ever blessed 
Gospel. Let us never forget, that to whom much is given, 
of them much will be required. We, surely, of all men, 
must be without excuse, if, blessed. with such “peculiar 
means, our light does not so shine before men that they 
may see. our good works, and, in the consistency of our 
characters and lives perceive the. practical value of our spi- 
ritual privileges. It is our part to add, by the soundness of 
our faith, and the piety of our lives, to the brilliancy of that 
light by which our Church would attract men to the know- 
ledge and service of her Lord, and guide them in the way 
of truth and duty; which if. we neglect to do, our guilt is 
marked with all the magnitude of awful ingratitude to God, 
and wilful refusal of profiting by his favours and blessings. 


But our religion is one of sympathy, and not only of 
self. Our blessings fail to produce one half of their in- 
tended good, if absorbed, and not cheerfully and liberally 
reflected on all to whom their benefits may reach. Espe- 
cially true is this of the inestimable gift of the light of 
Christian privileges and blessings. Possessed of the 
Church of the living God, his instrument for bearing and 
diffusing that light, hard and cold as ingratitude and insen- 


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faa 3 


sibility can make it, is the heart which turns not, in affec- 
tionate ‘sympathy, towards those,who are,destitute of that 
light, and is not filled with the holy desire and purpose of. 
ministering to their spiritual necessities. For, brethren, 
many there are, bewildered in the mazes of iniquity, lost to 
religious feeling; and enshrouded in the blackness of moral 
and spiritual darkness, who have not among them the only 
light that can reclaim them from their degradation and 
misery, guide them in the ways of peace and safety, and 
dissipate the gloom that envelopes them. ‘There are the 
sorely afflicted, who know not of the consolations that have 
~ been lit up ‘in your breasts, when sorrow has filled your 
hearts. There are the bereft who want the guidance which 
directs the eye of faith to a blissful re-union in’ glory, ho- 
nour, and immortality. There are the spiritually distressed, 
who feel and know their native frailty, their accumulating 
guilt, their distance from God, and their unfitness to hope 
in his mercy, who are fast sinking under an intolerable 
burden from which they know not where or how to find re- 
lief. There is, in the awful hour of death, the combined 
misery of a wounded spirit and of an agonized and sinking 
body, without the alleviation which would flow from the di- 
recting and cheering light of the Gospel. Pa 


And where are these scenes? Behold they are at our 
very doors. Hundreds, and thousands, and tens of thou- 
sands of our fellow citizens manifest them. A spiritual 
darkness that may be felt, that is most severely felt, hovers 
over no small portion even of our favoured land. The 
blessed precept of our Lord, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour 
as thyself,” and his Apostle’s richly fraught exhortation, 
**Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them, 
and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in 


[ ae 


the body,” urge to a kind, a cheerful, and a liberal contribu- 
tion to their relief. Set up, then, among them, the candle- 
‘stick which will bear, for their guidance and consolation, 
the pure light that emanates from the word, the worship, 
and the ordinances of God. 


There are clouds of even heathen darkness gathering over 
many and beautiful portions of our country. Infidelity 
reigns there. ‘The fear of God is not there before the eyes 
of his creatures. Truth is fast perishing from those parts 
of the earth. Irreligion, immorality, and vice there > triumph, 


and righteousness is refused.an entrance. For there the » 


Lord is not called on. ‘There the worship and ordinances of 
the Church are unknown. There, therefore, the name of God 
continually every day is blasphemed; the Son of Godis tram- 
pled under foot;. the blood of the covenant is counted an un- 
holy thing ; and grievous despite is done unto the Spirit of 
grace. Thither, then, Christians, turn your eyes, and direct 
your efforts, for setting up the candlestick, for providing the 
Church, which is to shed abroad the convicting and convert- 
ing influence of that light of the Gospel which shows the Lord 
,terrible in might, to pursue, to overtake, and to destroy the 
ungodly ; but gracious, long-suffering, winning, and holding 
out sanctification and salvation, to the humble and the con- 
trite ; which exhibits the Saviour in the constraining power 
of his suffering and redeeming love; and which discloses 
the offered Sanctifier, waiting to be gracious, to meet the 
first feeble efforts at return, to encourage and strengthen 
_the weakest wishes, desires, and hopes, directed towards re- 
formation, and to carry on with power the blessed work 
which turns men from darkness to light, and from Satan to 
the true, acceptable, and saving service of the living God. 
Direct one soul in this path of conversion and salvation, 


ee ie 


and you do a work, high in excellence as heaven, and last- 
ing in its blessed consequences as eternity. 

Over large portions of our country, the mystery of iniquity 
is working, in setting up, instead of the pure truth of the ever- 


lasting Gospel, arts of man’s device; whereby, in the strong’ 


language of the Apostle, damnable heresies are brought in 


to corrupt the minds of Christians, and turn them from the | 


truth to wretched, impious, and blasphemous fables. Other 
perversions, also, of Scripture doctrines’ and precepts, 
though not so glaring, yet hardly less: dangerous in their 
ultimate consequences, are stealing into a notice and influ- 
ence which threaten the most disastrous effects on pure and 
undefiled religion. And in less degrees, and ways less ob- 
vious, still more numerous species of innovation on the 
pure doctrines and holy order of the Gospel, are under- 
mining that beautiful fabric of the truth as it is in Jesus, 
which furnishes the only sure refuge to the convinced sin- 
ner, who would flee from the terrors, and lay hold on the 
precious promises, of the Lord. 7 


Brethren ; these things are, and their very existence, and, 
especially their existence to the extent to which it lament- 
ably prevails, calls most loudly upon us, not to be .satisfied 
with our own possession of the candlestick which bears the 
only counteracting light, but to give, on this momentous 
‘subject, the fullest scope to those sympathies of our nature, 
taised by the Gospel into required evangelical graces, which 
teach us to feel for the woes and the deprivations: of others. 
Woes and deprivations which affect temporal estate, and 
bodily necessities and comforts, being more obvious, gain a 
more easy access to the hearts, the hands, and the purses 
of the community. And God forbid that one word should 


[ iW | 


be said to discourage the utmost proper efforts for their al- 
leviation. But that sympathy must fall far short of the 
Gospel standard, and that benevolence sink far below the 
full character of Christian virtue, which regard not, in their 
operation, those necessities that relate to the soul and to 
eternity. If any proposition can commend itself to sound 
sense and to Christian principle, as true beyond dispute, it 
is, that a due value can there only be set on spiritual bless- 
ings and privileges, where there is a generous desire and 
effort to extend them. We may resist this principle as 
we will, and endeavour, as we will, to disentangle our- 
selves from its consequences; still it stands secure against 
all just and reasonable objection. Men will make efforts 
and sacrifices for what they value. The true love of Christ 
will have a constraining influence, to which the love of the 
world, and the graspings of avarice, and the narrowness of 
selfishness, and cold insensibility, must and will yield. 


And in presenting motives for the love of Christ to ope- 
rate in the line of missionary effort, it is by no means ne- 
cessary to roam far away. The spirit of missions, justly 
ranked among the most genuine fruits of the Gospel, by no 
means requires distant arguments in its favour. We need 
not search abroad for motives to its due value and full adop- 
tion. Let there be a just appreciation of the blessings of 
the Gospel, let the true love of Christ be stitred up in the 
heart, let the value of souls be duly estimated, let the cha- 
racter, the duties, and the benefits, spiritual, temporal, and 
eternal, of the Church of Christ, be owned and felt as they 
should be, and the cause of missions will find pleas at home 
more than enough to interest all the heart, and all the soul, 
and all the strength. If the alarming facts that hundreds, 
and thousands, and tens of thousands, of our fellow 

3 


bee 


citizens depend yet on missionary labour for the tem- 
poral and spiritual blessings of the Gospel; that much 
of the infidelity, the heresy, and the wild, disorganizing, 
and destructive fanaticism, which, in no small portions 
of our country, are sapping the very foundations of the 
Gospel, and of the dreadful influence on social and political 
_ welfare of vice and immorality, can be effectually counter- 
acted only by missionary enterprise ; and that brethren of 
our own household of faith, mourning over their destitution 
of religious privileges, with which, in older portions of the 
country, they once were blessed, can have them restored 
only by our active sympathy in sending among them, 
through missionary labour, the services and ordinances of 
their church—if, I say, these facts are insufficient to warm 
our hearts, and call forth our energies, in the cause of mis- 
sions, we may well fear that our sensibilities on the subject 
partake rather of the romantic character, which requires 
the constant stimulus of an interested imagination, than of 
that true love and devotion to the cause of Christ which 
builds all warmer feelings on an understanding governed by 
the honest truth. It may be pronounced an unmerited im- 
- putation on the holy cause of missions, to assert, or directly . 
or indirectly intimate, that its due appreciation requires ar-—* 
guments drawn from distant regions. No, brethren, strong, _ 
deeply interesting, most sensibly touching, as those argu- 
ments may be and are, they are not necessary. Enough, 
(would to God there were not half so much!) enough, and 
more than enough, there is at home, to stir us up to the 
holiest and warmest emulation in this best of causes. Let 
justice be done to arguments hence arising, and all that the 
love of Christ, and the love of the Church, and'the love of 
souls, demand in their favour, be yielded, and nothing more 
is wanted, to invest the spirit of missions with its most pow- 


md 


i 


‘ee 


erful claims on the affections and the energies of our na- 
ture. 


Citizens ; do you value the best interests of your coun- 
try, the blessings of social and civil order and fidelity? 
Exert the utmost of your ability to set up in every part of 
it that hallowed candlestick which will bear, for general dif- 
fusion, the inestimable blessing, reaching every grade and 
sort of human welfare, of the light of the glorious Gospel. 


_. Christians ; do you own and feel the value of your re- 


ligion? Provide largely and liberally for extending its in- 


_ fluence among the destitute. 


- Convicted and converted sinners; have you found com-. 
, fort under the grievous eat osatientdl and relief from the in- 


tolerable burden, of yoursins? O! pity those whose sins still 


rest, in all their enormity, upon them ; and in whose blind- 
ness to their spiritual danger, no light springs up for their 
conviction, except you send it, through the medium of mis- 
sionary labour. Pity, too, the smitten heart which owns, 
and feels, and sinks under, a sense of sin, but has no re- 
source for effectual Gospel comfort, save in missionary 
kindness. 


Afflicted Christians, who have experienced the strong 
consolations and supports of the Gospel amid the trials and 
troubles of life ; remember the multitudes of fellow sufferers 
who have not your refuge in the word, the worship, and the 
ordinances of that Gospel; but must go on their way in 
sorrow and in sadness, unrelieved by the light which brought 
you comfort, and enkindled joy even in the midst of all your ~ 


grief. 


r 20 4 


- Churchmen, who rightly appreciate the character of your 
Church; show that you love it, by such efforts as are demand- oe: 
ed for the due extension of its borders andits influence. Pro- 
’ fessions are an easy show, but deeds are a substantial proof, — 
of principles. Christ loved the Church, and therefore gave _ 


himself for it. You profess to love it. What will you give? 


For that to which we are truly attached, we will gladly make. . 
sacrifices and efforts. ‘To what we sincerely value, we will 
liberally and cheerfully contribute. Andif there are those 
to whom, on the present occasion, an especial appeal should — 


be made, it is to the professed strong friends of those pecu-. 


liar and distinctive principles of our Church, in which we — 


think we see its fairest claim to superiority among Christian 
communions in fitness for the character of being a candle- 
stick for bearing God’s own light in all its purity and _bril- 


liancy. Very fair and reasonable is it, to make the grade | 


of effort and contribution in behalf of the Church, the test 
_of sincere devotion to its cause. Be that test now applied, 
in the fear of God, and with a full sense of responsibility to’ 
Him, - $ a Ae estimate of duty to the Church. 


i 


